


Metaphors Eliminate

by GStK



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 19:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8460202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GStK/pseuds/GStK
Summary: After all this, I won't start to hate you.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Post-graduation. Canon-divergent ideas.

‘Wait! Hold on. You’ve got something,’ Leo says, and he reaches over. ‘In your hair.’

Eichi stills – and he would’ve regardless, just as soon as he’d been asked – surprise decorating his face, spackled like freckles he doesn’t have. Leo’s hand cards through his hair with a certainty born from experience; he tugs on the strands because he knows it doesn’t hurt. After a short moment, he pulls back, twirling a red string between his fingers.

‘You don’t wear anything red,’ Leo mutters. His brow furrows in thought, and his nose scrunches up when Eichi laughs. ‘What?’

‘Nothing,’ says Eichi, and he touches the back of his hand to his mouth. Wonder in motion. ‘I just thought… I was reminded of Wataru, for a moment. His magic tricks…’ He mimes pulling a coin out from behind his ear, flicking the lobe at the end of his routine. Leo’s face doesn’t change, but Eichi chuckles again. ‘He never tried that on you?’

‘Mmmrgh… not really? I dunno. I can’t remember!’ And he doesn’t see the need to; that much is clear. Leo flicks the string away and lays his head back against Eichi’s shoulder. When he finds that too uncomfortable, it ends up in Eichi’s lap. He sticks his tongue out in concentration, holds his papers out and over the edge of the couch. He blows vainly at a bang that swims in his face, so Eichi tucks it behind his ear for him, smiling.

‘… I remember,’ he hums, Leo’s eyes meeting his in the exchange. ‘During our final battle. He nearly tripped you with those flowers from behind his back.’ But Leo, of course, hadn’t given way. He’d sidestepped Wataru and danced around him, met up with Sena-kun to duet for their next line. And in the end, he’d snatched the bouquet away, racing up and down the stage before he’d tossed it to the crowd. They’d loved that. They’d loved him.

‘Earth to Emperor,’ Leo says – he swipes his fingers against Eichi’s chin. Eichi leans back instinctively. ‘Don’t go off talking to aliens in the middle of… oh, but if they said anything, you gotta tell me! Got it?’ He doesn’t continue, doesn’t stop swinging his hand at Eichi’s face until he agrees, breathless and nearly annoyed. ‘Anyway… that doesn’t count, ‘cause it wasn’t a trick. And I remember, you know. And it wasn’t our _final battle_ , you’re gonna fight us again – and –‘

‘I know.’ He appeases Leo gently, just to put the brakes on his runaway thought train. Maybe it doesn’t work, but Eichi likes to think it does: Leo stills, and his gaze wanders back to his composition. He says nothing of lost inspiration. ‘But it won’t be the same. Graduation changes things.’

‘And what’s wrong with that?’ Eichi doesn’t have an answer, because he’s right; there’s nothing wrong with that. ‘If you ask me,’ Leo says, grinning when Eichi takes hold of the ring-and-chain around his neck, ‘That’s exactly how it should be. What, ‘re’you scared? Wahaha! Coward!’

‘Say that when you’ve won, little king.’

‘Same goes to you!’

The heat slips out of the air when their lips meet. Eichi kisses him softly.

* * *

He’s used to the door rattling when Leo comes home – he’s used to the struggling, the jiggling of a lock that won’t give, all while Leo tries to remember what his house key is. He knows Leo is used to finding him in the entryway (five minutes later; sometimes ten, one time thirty, when the neighbours had reported _a strange young man trying to break into 203_ —). He likes it when Leo’s eyes jump to the stairs first, right where Eichi sits, because even if he grumbles it means he expects someone to be there.

‘Look!’ Leo exclaims, startling Eichi when he’s waiting for a _you like to see me suffer_. He throws an envelope into Eichi’s lap. ‘It’s a bill.’

‘A bill,’ Eichi intones. He turns it over slowly while Leo tosses his shoes in the corner. ‘For you?’

‘For _us_. What – what’s with that face? You’ve never seen a bill before? Well, aren’t you lucky!’

Eichi’s a little miffed – he didn’t make Keito take care of _every_ budgeting issue – but the time for annoyance is past when Leo crashes into him. Next to him, more like, but he pushes and nudges and ends up half in Eichi’s lap. ‘Open it,’ he says.

So Eichi does. Leo ripped through the envelope already (quickly, with his fingers, leaving ragged edges), and the papers inside are bent from being crammed back in. The address line is set in the folds of the first page: _To the Tsukinagas_. The tenants’ names are buried at the bottom of the third, after a waterfall of taxes and utilities. _Charged to the account of Tsukinaga Leo and Tsukinaga Eichi_.

And Eichi – feels warm inside.

The smile on his face makes Leo brighten, too. ‘I know, right? I know! It’s awesome! You use way too much water but it’s really cool! Ahh, Ms. Landlady, you're amazing! You’re the first one to recognise us in this cruel, inspiring world! I—‘

‘Actually,’ Eichi interrupts, ‘She’s not the first.’

Leo makes a noise in his throat suspiciously close to a _huh_?

Now the suspense lies in his keen grip. So does Leo’s hand, and Eichi curls their fingers together as he leads him to the bedroom. He deposits the envelope on their bed, and reaches over to the nightstand.

Leo snorts. ‘You framed it.’

‘I wanted to,’ Eichi returns. He sees Leo’s eyes skim the page behind the glass; he watches his lips move, and the way he pauses over Yuzuru’s precise _dearest regards to the Newlywed Tsukinagas_. Leo’s mouth tugs up on one side, quivers, like he’s smiling because he can’t help it.

‘An invitation,’ he scoffs, ‘From Hime. Doesn’t count, doesn’t count! Making your old unit invite you to their lives is cheating!’

‘Ah, but I didn’t ask them.’ But Leo’s still smiling. He mumbles something Eichi can’t catch, turning away from his touch to set the frame back down. ‘I’m sure it was Yuzuru’s idea. Or maybe half his idea? My precious Tori’s grown so much more responsible lately.’

‘And _you’re_ slacking off,’ Leo returns, sing-song. He lifts the bill over his head and collapses onto the bed. His ponytail flows out behind him, ripe for the tugging. ‘Did you even go? You didn’t, right? Your “precious” kouhai’s not gonna be waiting in the wings forever.’

‘No.’ It’s an answer for many things, for all of Leo’s thoughts. ‘There will be more,’ Eichi says, sinking down next to him, ‘And precious or not – he’ll have to earn it. He needs to shine brilliantly and prove he can stand on his own.’

‘And join _fine_ again when you guys have your big, dumb reunion out of school and buy your popularity. Well, whatever. Me and my Knights will be Japan’s number one idols by then, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’

Which is cute. Leo’s smile echoes with weight and stress and all his troubled years, but there’s pride there too. Pride. ‘If I recall,’ Eichi replies, ‘Your junior Tsukasa-kun has a ways to go too.’

‘Like you can even compare them!’ Leo huffs, quieting when Eichi pulls close… then sitting up when Eichi snatches the envelope away. ‘Hey!’

‘Hm? I was just thinking – this would look lovely on the kitchen wall. Next to my tea cups.’

‘We have to _pay_ that, you blockhead Emperor!’

‘Hehe.’

* * *

‘… _ah_.’

Panting, sweating, gasping – Leo rolls off of him. He sways like all the soul has slipped out of him, then seats himself on the edge of the bed, reaching for his trousers. Eichi watches him dress between the gaps in his fingers, hand thrown over his eyes. He feels Leo more than sees him, relaxes when Leo’s hand spreads over his heaving chest.

‘Want your shirt?’ he asks again.

Eichi shakes his head. ‘No,’ he attempts, lifts his head when Leo swirls his index finger in the air; he buries his face back into the pillow once it’s flipped over, burying his face into the cool fabric. ‘No – in the closet – the blue… the…’

The words won’t come, not when he asks them to. He shuts his eyes and wills the world to stop spinning, and when he opens them again, Leo’s found the shirt he wanted – and laid his medicine on the nightstand, next to a sports drink.

Not water, like the doctor said. Eichi smiles and works on trying to sit up. It’s a little easier after that.

When he’s not breathing so hard, Leo knocks their foreheads together. ‘You need to exercise more,’ he scolds. His voice is full of affection, bone-deep satisfaction, and his words have no bite when he presses lips to the back of Eichi’s neck. ‘Come with me on weekends. You can practice with my Knights – if you can keep up, that is! Hah.’

He doesn’t even sound challenging, just certain of himself, certain that that’s what Eichi needs. Eichi is tired and sore and _sick_ , still so sick, but it makes him feel good. Leo does. ‘The doctor said I was getting better. And now you’re risking it all because you think I’m lazy.’ He tips his chin back to meet Leo’s eye. ‘Leo-kun, you’re really something else.’

‘House rest is good, but you’re getting too spoiled,’ Leo answers adamantly. His arms fit lazily around Eichi’s middle, and the A/C buzzes to life, and the curtains dance under the heat. ‘We’ll whip you into shape – except for Suou, I guess? But you can’t just say you’re going on _break_ for two years and do nothing! You don’t deserve the throne you sit on!’

‘But I haven’t lost it yet,’ Eichi observes, reading the words Leo doesn’t say. ‘Even though I graduated… even though we’ve moved on. You think I’m the Emperor, still?’

‘Nah.’ Leo’s grip tightens, a little. He squirms closer. ‘But _I’m_ always a king, and you’re married to me – so I’ll be nice and share my throne, haha! Until you can steal a new one!’

And Eichi says, with a laugh: ‘How kind of you.’

There are parts of him that ache, sometimes, where his bones have been broken and yearn to be broken again in the pursuit of ensemble. Sitting at home is not the same as whiling away hours in a hospital, waiting for the IV to drip down. It’s more comfortable, less static, and the walls do echo of longing but it’s different, it’s not the same.

Leo comes home every day. Wataru visits – Keito, too – and the idol world still swirls around him, ever-changing. Anzu still has questions and his family’s influence still needs direction, and if it happens behind a telephone, a computer screen, it’s temporary. It’s two more years and maybe less, not because of his dwindling time but because they say he’s doing better. Okay.

Leo comes home every day.

‘ _Again_?’ Leo grumbles, scowling at as his phone lights up with another message. He slides the phone in Eichi’s direction, curling away with pen and paper. ‘You get that. I’m inspired – busy.’

‘And if I tell them _we’re_ busy making love?’ Eichi suggests. It’s Narukami-kun – Narukami and Suou-kun, actually, a picture taken to show they won their next S3. They look vibrant and alive.

Like Eichi feels, even if he isn’t there.

Leo guffaws loudly. ‘You’re a little late!’

Eichi sends it anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Title and summary adapted from works by Haruki Murakami.
> 
> Challenge: write love without the words "I love you."


End file.
